The first Steam Machines will ship on December 13, Valve said this afternoon. Three hundred beta testers will win their very own high-powered Steam Machines, complete with crazy trackpad controllers and free SteamOS games.

Valve's first Steam Machine—the one they'll be sending out to 300 beta users later this…
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Winners will be notified at 2pm Pacific, so start crossing your fingers now. Sadly for our overseas friends, Valve said they had to limit the beta to U.S. Steam users, "because the alternative was to delay the whole beta beyond the point when we'd be able to incorporate any feedback into the 2014 products."

Valve says SteamOS will be downloadable for anyone when the Steam Machines ship, and the in-home streaming beta will also begin soon. We'll find out more about retail Steam Machines at CES in January.